The air in the deepest part of the Mythlorien Forest was thick, with high humidity that made breathing difficult; the group was sweating more profusely than in drier places.
"There," Justin whispered, pointing to a clearing where the ground seemed to have been transformed into twisted limestone statues. "I think that’s the Cockatrice nest we’re looking for."
Up ahead, eight hybrid creatures, with the bodies of giant roosters and serpent tails, patrolled the area.
[Visual Representation Here and on Discord.gg/NunuXD]
Six of them sported vibrant crimson crests, indicating Level 11, while two smaller, Level 10 ones circled the edges.
The aura they exuded was oppressive, despite their appearance.
These creatures’ beaks didn’t just pierce like those of normal roosters; according to the information Intervar had provided in the guide, after evolving to Level 11, their beaks turned the flesh they struck into stone.
"Split up!" Alice commanded. Since she had been leading this group for a few weeks, Lohan and Lisa chose to let her take command, as she knew each group’s strengths and would handle the situation better than they could, since they didn’t know the members as well yet.
Alice’s command was cold, a stark contrast to the excitement she usually radiated.
"Dee, you come with me to the center. Wyrm and Tunder, take the left flank. Justin and Samantha, circle around the right. Don’t let them group up!"
Lohan wasted no time. He expelled three masses of his own light-blue gelatin that rolled quickly toward each pair. Thanks to his mind being divided into independent processing streams, he could coordinate every fragment of himself with ease.
"Come, Halon..." Lisa sent the mental transmission while looking away in embarrassment.
"What?" Lohan asked, confused.
Approaching him, the fox crouched down and spoke. "Climb up, just don’t wrap me in the living armor in front of them." She said in a low voice, even though the transmission was telepathic.
Lohan was surprised by this, but didn’t mind, rolling onto the fox’s back as they initially battled, using Lisa for maneuvering while unifying the sensory network of all the clones.
In the center, Alice and Dee advanced against the two largest Cockatrices. Dee raised his heavy shield, but Lohan realized that the force of the creatures’ kicks could break the warrior’s stance.
In the millisecond the Cockatrice delivered a downward kick, Lohan’s fragment expanded over Dee’s shield, creating a rigid black shell that hardened instantly upon impact.
The sound of a muffled explosion echoed, but Dee didn’t flinch an inch, standing firm, surprised that the impact was much less than he’d expected.
Taking advantage of the opening, Alice emerged from behind the shield and landed a punch on the beast’s neck. The fragment of Lohan injected some of its own mass into Alice’s arm and generated a small kinetic explosion at the point of impact, qualitatively increasing the blow’s power.
This was a strategy Lohan had spent the previous day carefully observing the group to develop.
With so many different abilities he possessed, finding opportunities to use every single one was a very inefficient use of them.
Often, he had an ability that would be more useful than others in various situations, rendering many evolutions useless.
But by fighting alongside the group, Lohan was able to find perfect opportunities to fit an ability into every situation, greatly enhancing the power of each one.
"Hahaha, that’s exactly what I’m talking about, Halon! I feel like fighting with you raises my Class level even higher! Maybe I can say I have a Rare+ Class?!" Alice laughed excitedly, accelerating the speed of her punches, taking advantage of the explosion caused by each impact with Lohan’s Clone.
On the left flank, Wyrm and Tunder were dealing with two other beasts. Wyrm struck his staff against the ground, causing spiny roots to burst from the mud to trap the Cockatrices’ legs. However, the creatures flapped their metallic wings, trying to create a suction to escape and pull the scouts closer.
Realizing the danger, the fragment of Lohan positioned with them reacted. He shot bluish threads into the trunks of nearby trees, creating a restraining net that stabilized Wyrm and Tunder against the suction. Simultaneously, the clone generated his own vacuum in the opposite direction, weakening the monsters’ pull and throwing them off balance.
"Now, Tunder!" Lohan transmitted through the mental link.
The mage’s eyes flashed, and he fired an electrical discharge. Lohan’s fragment extended conductive filaments that wrapped around the monsters, channeling the electricity directly into the Cockatrices’ nervous systems, paralyzing them while the Slime began passively draining their life energy.
Although it took a bit of damage from Tunder, that damage served to speed up its digestion, making the attack even more lethal.
Meanwhile, on the right, Justin and Samantha faced the remaining beasts. Justin fired magical clouds of smoke, saturating the area. Normally, this would slightly hinder Samantha’s vision; though she had an affinity for darkness and was stealthy, Lohan shared his thermal perception with her, completely nullifying the effect on her.
For Samantha, the smoke became transparent. She glided among the confused Cockatrices like a ghost. When one of the beasts tried to sniff out the Rogue’s position, Lohan’s fragment expelled a dense, bitter-smelling cloud, acting as an olfactory lure that drew the beast’s lunge into the void. Samantha emerged from the shadows and plunged her daggers into the monster’s wing joint, bringing it down.
Lohan, watching everything from behind Lisa, realized the group was gaining the upper hand, but the lead Cockatrice let out a deafening scream and charged at Justin and Samantha, who were more vulnerable.
"Lisa, the leader is ours!" Lohan commanded.
Lisa didn’t hesitate. She moved with a speed that turned her into a white blur, crossing the clearing in seconds. Lohan had to control himself not to instinctively form the Living Armor around her.
The leader Cockatrice attempted a petrifying peck, but Lohan stretched out slightly and hardened his surface exactly at the point of impact. The metallic beak struck the armor with a shattering sound, but did not pierce it.
Despite the numbness he felt in that spot, Lohan took advantage of the contact and injected venom back directly into the cracks of the beast’s shell through his tentacles.
"Take advantage of the poison in him, Lisa!"
Lisa leaped, propelling herself with a trail of brilliant blue light, and in midair, she channeled her flames. Lohan materialized a dense, toxin-laden ice spike that merged with her attack.
The combined projectile struck the leader’s chest, causing an intense internal implosion due to the accumulation of magic and power that this attack unleashed, which sought to destroy the creature’s vital core.
The monster froze, its red eyes losing their glow before it collapsed heavily into the mud.
With the leader dead, Lohan and Lisa acted as a cleanup crew, moving from pair to pair.
Lohan collected the biomass from the corpses through their fragments, while Lisa delivered finishing blows to the monsters that the rest of the group had worn down and immobilized.
When silence returned to the clearing, interrupted only by the hissing of the accelerated decomposition Lohan was performing on the organic remains, the scouts lowered their weapons, panting and amazed.
"I... I thought Level 11 Cockatrices would be the end of us," Justin remarked in surprise, wiping the sweat from his forehead and looking at the bow. "With Halon’s help... it felt like I knew where the monster was going to land even before it jumped."
"What incredible coordination!" Alice said excitedly, walking over to Lisa and Lohan with a satisfied smile. "Even after reaching Level 11, I still feel like we’re slightly weaker in combat power than monsters of the same level, but with you two, that difference is completely reversed, giving us a wonderful advantage!"
Lohan formed a small blue hand and gave the group a thumbs-up.
Suddenly, Lisa said something surprising. "I just need one more group of monsters to level up!"